Christ in the House of Simon the Pharisee

This detailed drawing on blue paper is a study for a mural in a refectory, the dining room of a monastery. Many of its figures are derived from Vasari’s own compositions or those of his contemporaries. They entirely fill the small loggia with its fantastical twisted columns. This horror-vacui, or fear of empty space, was a typical feature of Mannerism, the art movement to which Vasari belonged.